Slim Harpo - Baby Scratch My Back (mono)

In the large stable of blues talent that Crowley, LA, producer Jay Miller recorded for the Nashville-based Excello label, no one enjoyed more mainstream success than Slim Harpo. Just a shade behind Lightnin' Slim in local popularity, Harpo played both guitar and neck-rack harmonica in a more down-home approximation of Jimmy Reed, with a few discernible, and distinctive, differences. Harpo's music was certainly more laid-back than Reed's, if such a notion was possible. But the rhythm was insistent and, overall, Harpo was more adaptable than Reed or most other bluesmen. His material not only made the national charts, but also proved to be quite adaptable for white artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Kinks, Dave Edmunds with Love Sculpture, Van Morrison with Them, Sun rockabilly singer Warren Smith, Hank Williams, Jr., and the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

A people-pleasing club entertainer, he certainly wasn't above working rock & roll rhythms into his music, along with hard-stressed, country & western vocal inflections. Several of his best tunes were co-written with his wife Lovelle and show a fine hand for song construction, appearing to have arrived at the studio pretty well formed. His harmonica playing was driving and straightforward, full of surprising melody, while his vocals were perhaps best described by writer Peter Guralnick as "if a black country & western singer or a white rhythm & blues singer were attempting to impersonate a member of the opposite genre." And here perhaps was Harpo's true genius, and what has allowed his music to have a wider currency. By the time his first single became a Southern jukebox favorite, his songs were being adapted and played by white musicians left and right. Here was good-time Saturday-night blues that could be sung by elements of the Caucasian persuasion with a straight face. Nothing resembling the emotional investment of a Howlin' Wolf or a Muddy Waters was required; it all came natural and easy, and its influence has stood the test of time.

He was born James Moore just outside of Baton Rouge, LA. After his parents died, he dropped out of school to work every juke joint, street corner, picnic, and house rent party that came his way. By this time he had acquired the alias of Harmonica Slim, which he used until his first record was released. It was fellow bluesman Lightnin' Slim who first steered him to local recordman J.D. Miller. The producer used him as an accompanist to Hopkins on a half-dozen sides before recording him on his own. When it came time to release his first single ("I'm a King Bee"), Miller informed him that there was another Harmonica Slim recording on the West Coast, and a new name was needed before the record could come out. Moore's wife took the slang word for harmonica, added an "o" to the end of it, and a new stage name was the result, one that would stay with Slim Harpo the rest of his career.

Harpo's first record became a double-sided R&B hit, spawning numerous follow-ups on the "King Bee" theme, but even bigger was "Rainin' in My Heart," which made the Billboard Top 40 pop charts in the summer of 1961. It was another perfect distillation of Harpo's across-the-board appeal, and was immediately adapted by country, Cajun, and rock & roll musicians; anybody could play it and sound good doing it. In the wake of the Rolling Stones covering "I'm a King Bee" on their first album, Slim had the biggest hit of his career in 1966 with "Baby, Scratch My Back." Harpo described it "as an attempt at rock & roll for me," and its appearance in Billboard's Top 20 pop charts prompted the dance-oriented follow-ups "Tip on In" and "Tee-Ni-Nee-Ni-Nu," both R&B charters. For the first time in his career, Harpo appeared in such far-flung locales as Los Angeles and New York City. Flush with success, he contacted Lightnin' Slim, who was now residing outside of Detroit, MI. The two reunited and formed a band, touring together as a sort of blues mini-package to appreciative white rock audiences until the end of the decade. The new year beckoned with a tour of Europe (his first ever) all firmed up, and a recording session scheduled when he arrived in London. Unexplainably, Harpo -- who had never been plagued with any ailments stronger than a common cold -- suddenly succumbed to a heart attack on January 31, 1970.

Ripped from the original 1966 release in glorious mono.

Post: http://sharebee.com/2e6e6065

Detroit Jr. - Chicago Urban Blues

Junior was a raspy-voiced, rambunctious performer who gigged constantly and recorded on scores of other artists' albums, as well as five albums under his own name. Two of his songs have become blues standards - "Call My Job," which was a hit for Albert King, and evergreen favorite "Money Tree." Koko Taylor recorded his "Tired Of That," "Thanks, But No Thanks," and "Never Trust A Man."
Emery Williams, Jr. was already an experienced entertainer and piano player when he came to Chicago in 1956 from Detroit. He was originally from Haynes, Arkansas where he was born on October 26, 1931, and spent his childhood in southern Illinois. He had led his own band, the Blues Chaps, since he was 19, playing clubs in Pontiac and Flint, Michigan.
In Chicago Junior quickly won a following with his percussive piano and energetic stage show. He paired up with harp man Little Mack Simmons, and they settled into a steady gig as house band at Cadillac Baby's South Side club. He recorded his first single, “Money Tree,” backed with “So Unhappy” in 1960 for the Bea & Baby label.
During the '60s Junior performed with Mack Simmons, Eddie Taylor, Sam Lay and Johnny Twist. From 1968 on, he toured and recorded with the Howlin' Wolf. When Wolf died in 1976, Junior stuck with the band, the Wolf Gang, under the leadership of sax man Eddie Shaw for a number of years.
Detroit Junior's first full album under his own name, Chicago Urban Blues , came out in the early 1970s. Alligator Records included four of his songs on the Living Chicago Blues, Volume 6 anthology in 1980. From 1995 through 2004, Detroit Junior released four CDs under his own name, three for Blue Suit Records: Turn Up The Heat (1995), Take Out The Time (1997), and Live At The Toledo Museum Of Modern Art (2004). His most recent release was '04's Blues On The Internet on Delmark.
In the last few years, Junior often appeared on the Chicago's North Side at clubs like Kingston Mines, even after losing a leg to diabetes. He was filmed for Martin Scosese's PBS series, The Blues, and was active writing and performing until his death in 2005.

It's a mint lp but quality of this pressing is pretty bad with alot of hissing and crackling throughout the lp.

Post: http://sharebee.com/517aeca7

Pee Wee Crayton - Same

German release of recordings made by Johnny Otis for his Blues Spectrum label in 1974. Giving it a listen after about 20 years it doesn't sound that bad as I thought it did at the time.

Post: http://sharebee.com/441b4892

Big John Wrencher - Big John's Boogie

This set by the obscure yet legendary one-armed harmonica player and singer Big John Wrencher is one of the great overlooked blues classics of the 1970s. Recorded in England in 1975 (with two bonus tracks from 1974) with Eddie "Playboy" Taylor's band, the Blueshounds, it is the only recording in Wrencher's small catalog that begins to capture the intensity, soulfulness, and elegance of his live performances. Wrencher was a composer as well as an interpreter and arranger of great blues and R&B classics. The set begins with an amazing read of "Honeydripper" by Joe Liggins. Began as a simple blues shuffle, Wrencher's harmonica solo before the tune's main groove kicks in turns it into something else entirely -- a spine-loosening groover of the highest order. When he begins to sing in his clear, smooth baritone, the seams begin to split and the track bleeds blue all over the stereo. His arrangement of the traditional blues tune "Third Degree" is a nearly Famous Flames-styled funk tune with its choogling riff and pumped-up bass in the front of the mix. Wrencher's voice makes it really growl and shake, however. He doesn't ask questions when he sings; he shouts what he knows. Wrencher's own "Lonesome in My Cabin" is a spooky, minor-key blues that has the author's moaning, groaning vocal at its heart, and a repetitive piano riff shadowed by the electric guitar filling space along with Wrencher's harmonica. The four-to-the-floor boogie of "Come On Over," another Wrencher original, rolls, twists, and turns on his harmonica's woven lines, his huge, ringing voice moving into a guttural groove colored by Taylor's lead guitar. This is a Joe Turner-styled shouter, but Wrencher's voice makes it so immediate, so full of cracks and splinters, it's virtually alive. The album's final track, "I'm a Root Man," one of Wrencher's own, is a slow to mid-tempo blues with a call-and-response line that acts as nothing but a vehicle for the author's storytelling way of singing. It is sensual, raw, and full of the kind of otherworldly life listeners seldom hear in blues records anymore. This set is a treasure. Period.
Also a review from the cd release with 2 extra tracks.

Some more info:
THE BEAR remembers Big John Wrencher...

Big John rencher was an amiable giant, possessed of that agility so often seen in big men. He also had only one arm, and the sight of that huge bear of a man singing and playing wonderfully, jiving around the stage with such grace, empty sleeve flapping at his side, is indelibly etched in my memory.
He'd lost his left arm on a highway outside Memphis in 1958, whilst driving home from a performance. A hot night, he dangled his arm from the car window as he drove, fell asleep and side-swiped a truck coming in the opposite direction. The story has it that he picked up the limb and walked back into Memphis is (in?) a vain attempt to find a doctor who might reattachit. When we first met, he was also using the sobriquet One-Armed John Wrencher, but was dissuaded from that. He performed with a vivacity and drive that his fellow musicians found compelling. He had a great mellow voice, total command of his harp despite his physical limitations, and an immense stage presence.
He was born John Thomas Wrencher in Sunflower, Mississippi on February 12th, 1923, and raised around the fertle Blues territory of Clarksdale. He was a self-taught musician, but worked as a farmer in the 40s. He took off to hobo through Tennessee, Mississippi and Illinois from 1947 to 1955, working as an intinerant musician on the street, at picnics, parties and jukes. He then moved to Detroit to work full-time in music, before relocating to Chicago in 1962, initially playing for tips on Maxwell Street and subsequently becoming an integral part of The City's Blues scene.
He took to Europe instantly, as we took to him. A fierce scowl masked a character of immense charm and generosity. Onstage he was a king; if ever a man was born to entertain it was Big John Wrencher. His rich vocals and wonderful harmonica playing endeared him to a new generation of Blues fans. On tour with American Blues Legends '74, Big John would often tell the story of his shock on first arriving in England, when he spotted a huge dog driving a truck: "Damn", he said "I know they are pretty clever over here in England, but I never throught I'd see a dog driving a truck!" He was somewhat disappointed to subsequently discover that we drive on the left-hand side of the road.

Post: http://sharebee.com/5b1697eb

Pee Wee Crayton - Early Hours

A West Coast blues guitar hero, Crayton died shortly after these sessions, done primarily with Rod and Honey Piazza's band, or with jazz pianist Llew Matthews' quartet. The two dates show Crayton could do it all. Jump blues, hard or straight blues, and boogie were all easily played. It's that unmistakable T-Bone Walker influence, a stinging, swinging single line or chunky, chortling chord progressions that made Crayton stand out among the crowded blues guitar landscape. He was a one-of-a kind player, and this CD is not only his final testament, but a solid exclamation point on the career of a true American music legend. Crayton also proved to be a pretty good singer. His soulful rendering of the hit "Send for Me" is sincere and believable. "Barefootin'" might be a throwaway, but he really sends up the B.B. King evergreen "When I'm Wrong." Steaming instrumentals with big horn charts swing hard as on "You Know Yeah," Eddie Taylor's "E.T. Blues," "Red Rose Boogie," and the short horn-fired rave-up "Head'n'Home." The Piazzas and Matthews really know how to support a star, and their work is as credible as any. Additional kudos to Crayton's wife, Esther, who wrote six of these 11 cuts, and was always a major factor in his repertoire. On some of his solos, Crayton is astounding; on the rest, his guitar is merely spectacular. Though 14 years late (Crayton died in 1985) and only 45 minutes short on this CD, this is a precious document of one of originals of blues guitar, and a reminder that although he was relatively obscure, he had many fans who knew what the real deal was. For blues scholars, this is an artist, like Freddie King, Otis Rush, and T-Bone, well worth studying and relishing.
Above is a review for the cd release with 3 extra tracks.

Post: http://sharebee.com/ada57648

Mississippi Delta Blues Band - Chromatic Style

Sam Myers in order to make ends meet began working for Mississippi Industry for the Blind situated in Jackson and performed from time to time, most notably with Sylvia Embrey and the Mississippi All-Stars Blues Band, which enjoyed several world tours. In 1979, he recorded another single for Johnny Vincent, “You’re So Fine” (Ace 2037) which failed to attract any interest. In the period 1980 to 1986, he, mainly in a supporting role for this loosely knit group, appeared on no less than seven compilations on the TJ label, all of which are apparently out of print---Down Home in Mississippi (1979), Mississippi Delta Blues (1980), Mississippi Delta Blues Band: In Europe (1981), Mississippi Delta Blues Band (1981), San Francisco Blues Band, Chromatic Style (1981), San Francisco Blues Band (1986), and Mississippi Delta Blues Band Greatest Hits (1986). Although some sources insist that there were some singles issued from these vinyl albums, they have yet to be verified in any record guide.
Edited from an excelent article on Sam Myers that you can find here:
http://www.bluesartstudio.com/NeueSeiten/Remembering%20SAM%20MYERS.html

Be warned .. playing to much chromatic harp is bad for your smile ... look at the kid on the cover :-).

Post: http://sharebee.com/c26605f1

Lonesome Sundown - Same

Green was born on the Dugas Plantation near Donaldsonville, Louisiana. At the age of 18, he moved to New Orleans and worked in various jobs including as a porter at the New Southport Club, a casino in Jefferson Parish. He returned to Donaldsonville by 1948 and, inspired by Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, began taking guitar lessons from a cousin. In 1953, after a brief period as a truck driver in Jeanerette, Louisiana, he moved again to work at the Gulf Oil Refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. By this time he had begun to take his music more seriously, jamming at local clubs, and in 1955 was invited by Clifton Chenier to sit in with his new band, the Zodico Ramblers, at the Blue Moon Club in Lake Charles. Chenier offered him the post of second guitarist in the band, alongside first guitarist Phillip Walker. Green toured with them as far as Chicago and Los Angeles, where Chenier's recording of "The Cat's Dreaming" was inspired by Green falling asleep during a session, and where Green auditioned for producer Bumps Blackwell but failed to get a contract.
Green married later in 1955, left the Zodico Ramblers, and moved to Opelousas, Louisiana where he began playing with Lloyd Reynauld and writing his own material. He recorded a demo tape, and took it to producer J. D. "Jay" Miller in Crowley. Miller was impressed, gave the singer/ guitarist the stage name "Lonesome Sundown", and recorded his debut single, "Leave My Money Alone" b/w "Lost Without Love", which he leased to Excello Records in 1956. The follow-up, "Lonesome Whistler" b/w "My Home Is A Prison", was more successful, and Sundown became one of Miller's south Louisiana stable of musicians. Although he never had a chart hit, he recorded for Miller for eight years, and his records sold in respectable quantities, his output including "Don’t Say A Word" (featuring Lazy Lester on harmonica), "I'm a Mojo Man," "You Know I Love You," "I Stood By (And Watched Another Man Steal My Gal)," "My Home Ain't Here," and the much covered, "Gonna Stick To You Baby." Unusually for Louisiana musicians, Sundown's style of the blues was more in keeping with the sound of Muddy Waters than that of Jimmy Reed, and his sombre and melancholic recordings and instantly recognizable style were described by Miller as "the sound of the swamp".
Sundown continued to work with Miller into the early 1960s, and in 1964 recorded "Hoo Doo Woman Blues" b/w "I’ve Got A Broken Heart", recordings which have been described as among "the last ethnic down-home blues 45s aimed exclusively at the Negro market". However, by 1965 Sundown had become disillusioned with his lack of success, experienced a traumatic divorce, retired from the music industry to work as a laborer, and joined the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith Fellowship Throughout the World Church, where he eventually became a minister. He was persuaded back to the recording studios in 1977, and recorded another blues album, Been Gone Too Long, co-produced by Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker, originally for Joliet Records. Despite its quality, disappointing sales ensued, even after being reissued on Alligator. His final single release was 1977's "I Betcha".
Sundown did several concerts, including an appearance at the 1979 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and tours of Sweden and Japan with Phillip Walker, but then walked away from the music business for good. In 1994 he suffered a stroke, and he was no longer able to speak. Sundown died in Gonzales, Louisiana, in April 1995, aged 66. He was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame in 2000.

Post: http://sharebee.com/b3301e66

Various - Music City Soul

Some nice 60's & 70's soul from Nashville or labels out of Nashville. Some blues also from T-Bone, Wilbert Harrison and Calvin Leavy. Blues tracks are nothing special so it's a LP for the soul fans.

tracklist: http://www.discogs.com/Various-Music-City-Soul/release/1376668

Post: http://rapidshare.com/files/339967260/va_-_music_city_soul.rar

Little Joe Blue - Dirty Work Going On

The last of the Little Joe Blue lp's that I'll be posting. Ripped from a white label promo that came in a stickerd plain white sleeve. Label shot is from internet.
The best LJB lp by far is "Southern Country Boy" on Jewel records so do a search on Captain Crawl and it'll turn up.

Post: http://rapidshare.com/files/339780776/little_joe_blue_-_dirty_work_going_on.rar

Eddie Floyd/Primettes - Lookink Back With

This LP is slightly misleading -- it does, indeed, contain seven of eight songs known to have been cut by The Primettes for LuPine Records in 1960, although the group is singing backup behind Al Garner on several of these numbers. They're paired here with eight early Eddie Floyd sides, also cut for LuPine following the breakup of the Falcons. Primitive as some early Motown recordings seem, these Primettes sides outdo them, essentially doo wop records with an edge, and patterned after the singing of The Chantels.

Post:
http://rapidshare.com/files/339752859/eddie_floyd_supremes_-_looking_back_with.rar